Mama and kittens adopted us (Mama literally dragged them to our home one night in the rain) when the kittens were about 4 weeks old (by the 1lb per week weight estimation method). Mama was very malnourished and nursing 5 kittens, so we fed her and got her feeling better. A couple weeks later, one of her intestines twisted up requiring emergency surgery. So the vet said we should not spay her for 2 months to give her immune system time to get back to normal. We had the surgery booked, but unfortunately, she had some complications a few weeks post-op, and is still fighting bacteria in her gut that won't seem to go away (and nobody's been able to identify...), so neither vet we deal with is comfortable spaying her until that is cleared up and her poops are solid.

And, the little guys are too young to neuter. We have a vet that specializes in anesthesia (teaches it at the local university as well) who could do it before 4 months, but even she is not very comfortable with that.

Mama doesn't seem to be in heat at the moment, and I never imagined the little guys would develop such "urges" so early. So, is there a real risk of her getting pregnant at this point? I never wanted to have to know this much about feline reproduction.

There is always going to be the ones that break the rules and have the ability to breed early, but I had thought in young male cats this didn't really happen until around 5-8mo old. Is he just 'practicing' his grown-up-lady's-man/cat moves? ...maybe trying to establish dominance? Play? I really don't know. Can you keep them seperated until Mamma kitty could get spayed?

...I remember your story of her bringing the kitties to you and then her surgery.

Keeping them separated is near impossible in this house. Last time we tried that we tried everything we could think of. The thing that (almost) worked was building a 7' wall of cardboard, and that drove both us and cats absolutely cuh-RAY-zee.

I always thought the general rule for getting kitties fixed was 2lbs/2mos, I'd talk to a local rescue and see what you can get done. Also I thought that at about 4 months they start to exhibit behavior for mating but can't actually mate till about 5-6 months, not 100% on that, though. Good luck and hopefully it's just practice and you can get them fixed before there's an oops. Also home mama recovers from whatever it is that ails her

At 3 1/2 months, your kitten is no longer considered pediatric and can be treated, anesthetically, as an adult. I'm also surprised at the hesitantcy of your vet but if they're not comfortable with it for some reason, I wouldn't push it.

My vet WILL do it early, but only in cases like Ricoh's where there is danger of cats getting preggers. There IS slightly more risk from anesthesia with smaller animals -- that's just a fact. The slight risk is worth it for shelters or for people w/ multiple unaltered cats, but may not be worth it for pet owners with indoor cats, the rest of whom are already altered. I won't be neutering Jonah until he's 6 mos old or so.

So perhaps the vet here just doesn't understand that there is a genuine risk of pregnancy here? Or perhaps look for a spay/neuter clinic--they do 2 month old cats DAILY and probably have more experience w/ doing so than most other vets.

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